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Longmont police: Taser shot to the back is good practice

Man accused of pulling knife during altercation with officer held in jail's special management unit

By Pierrette J. Shields

Times-Call staff writer

Posted:
04/04/2014 08:39:59 PM MDT

Updated:
04/04/2014 08:40:57 PM MDT

Ehmsen

A Longmont man who was arrested on Tuesday after a police officer shot him in the back with a Taser is being held in the Boulder County Jail's special management unit.

Christopher Ehmsen, 51, is accused of twice pulling a knife on a Longmont police officer and is scheduled to appear in court on Monday for filing of charges. He was arrested on suspicion of first-degree assault with extreme indifference and felony menacing. The altercation with the officer, who was initially called to help contain Ehmsen for a mental health hold, led to an arrest instead. He was jailed and placed in a unit for suspects who require mental health care.

According to reports, Longmont Master Police Officer Jason Malterud responded to a call from Boulder County Mental Health about a man who left the doctor's office because the doctor wanted to place him on a hold and Ehmsen instead walked away.

Malterud caught up with him on the 800 block of Lincoln Street. When the officer called out for Ehmsen to stop, the man reportedly pulled a knife from his pocket and ran toward Malterud, who was still in his marked patrol car. The officer locked the door and rolled up his window because he could not back away from the man because an ambulance was behind him. Ehmsen reportedly pointed the knife at the officer through the window, yelled unintelligibly at the officer, and then pocketed the knife and walked away again.

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As he walked away, the officer got out of his car and pulled his Taser. He followed Ehmsen and ordered him to stop. Ehmsen, while he was about 30 to 35 feet from the officer, turned and displayed the knife again. Malterud told him to drop the knife and he told Malterud to put the Taser away

"I told Chris he needed to put the knife down first," Malterud wrote in the report. "Chris said 'fine' and I noticed Chris them folded the knife and put it in his pocket."

Police reported Ehmsen again started to walk away from the officer, who wrote in his report that he jogged up to about 20 feet from Ehmsen and shot him with the Taser, with the probes lodging into his lower back and right leg.

Ehmsen fell backward and struck his head on the ground. A second officer arrived and assisted with the arrest.

The officer was not hurt.

Longmont Police Cmdr. Jeff Satur said Malterud is among officers in the department who have completed special training to deal with mentally ill suspects. CIT, or certified intervention trained, officers wear an insignia with the designation.

He added that shooting suspects in the back with Tasers is good practice because it prevents shots to the face or genitals and tends to lodge into larger muscle groups, allowing for a more effective lock of the muscles

"We actually teach people in Taser training to shoot them in the back if they can," Satur said.

While Ehmsen had reportedly pocketed the small blade and was walking from the officer, he remained a threat, Satur said. Malterud reported that he worried that Ehmsen could hurt someone else if he managed to get way.

"We don't have to compromise our safety for the benefit of the suspect," Satur said, praising Malterud's decision to shoot Ehmsen with the Taser.

He said Ehmsen was uncooperative with the officer and did not drop the knife and instead choose to remain armed. He also threatened a uniformed and well-identified officer with a deadly weapon, Satur said.

"Officer Malterud was very controlled in his response," he said. "A suspect pulled a deadly weapon on him twice."

Boulder County Jail Division Chief Bruce Haas said Ehmsen will receive a mental health evaluation while at the jail because the arrest preempts the planned mental-health hold. The jail houses inmates with mental health needs separately. Additional evaluation and treatment could be ordered through the courts, but Haas noted that because Ehmsen is facing violent felony charges he will not qualify for some facilities, like the Mental Health Institute at Fort Logan

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